Company: AAK

Website: www.aak.com

Ingredient Snapshot: AAK USA Inc. recently showcased several new flavored shortening flakes that have been developed with sweet goods manufacturers in mind. AAK’s versatile flaked shortenings offer bakers many functional advantages over traditional packaged shortening. The new flavor options also complement trends that are driving sales in the sweet baked good category. Juicy orange and creamy vanilla are the newest flavor concepts available to help inspire bakers on their development journey.

“Our Customer Innovation Team recently developed several new sweet baked good concepts to showcase the functional advantages our flavored flakes provide,” said Dr. James Jones, vice president customer innovation, AAK USA Inc. “There are many facets to functionality, but we like to think about it in terms of how it helps a customer achieve their goals. In addition to delivering phenomenal flavor and color stability, flakes are much easier for Warehousing and Production to handle and incorporate into dough and dry mixes than traditional packaged shortening. This also translates into reductions in labor cost, waste, and processing time for customers. Our flavored flake shortening can eliminate entire steps in a customer’s manufacturing process. Our new flavors are sure to inspire new ideas and drive innovation—from development and production all the way through to successful new product launches.”

AAK’s multi-functional shortening flakes take center stage in the following great-tasting non-hydrogenated, zero trans and low-in-saturated fat baked sweet good concepts:

• Chiffon snack cake: Juicy orange flavor flakes and vanilla flavor flakes work together in a dry cake mix for a refreshingly decadent finished cake. Flaked shortening can be easily incorporated into a dry ingredient mix, especially when combined with granulated salt or sugar. The higher melting point of flakes also provides a great heat tolerance to withstand friction created by processing.
• Apple turnover: Versatile butter flavor flakes are featured in this pie dough, with an apple filling folded into the dough. Flakes are easily dispersed throughout the dough, providing uniform distribution of fat with pockets of flavor that are consistent throughout the baked good. These flakes also produce a tender crumb that resists toughening and is ideal for pie crusts.

Flakes work well in a variety of applications including cakes, pie doughs, biscuits, pizza crusts and more.

Learn more about AAK’s co-development approach and large toolbox of plant-based, multi-source and multi-function fats and oils that are helping create—and accelerate the speed to market of—better-for-you foods that look and taste great by visiting www.betterwithAAK.com and www.aak.com.